I'd agree it wasn't breathtaking, but I'd say it was more than interesting. On first hearing, the piece struck me as an essay in klangfarbenmelodie, with various sections of the orchestra passing the line around in short phrases, punctuated, at least near the beginning, by a few dramatic outbursts. In the notes, Wuorinen said the overall effect was contemplative, and that's accurate, I think. It was quite attractive, I thought, though it had none of the spaciousness one would expect from a piece for large orchestra, and it doesn't have the overall sense of shape that some of Mr. Carter's recent orchestral works have. There were some colorful, sparkling passages for metallophone and other percussion I can't name, and the ending, though quiet, was memorable, with three flutes playing a deep-toned triad. As with most new music (even old music I've never heard before), I’d like to listen a few times before passing judgment.

Larry Rinkel said something after the concert I thought was pithy. Bruce Hodges described Wuorinen as an "uncompromising modernist," and Larry said that the new piece did contain a few compromises. That's not a condemnation; in my mind, it simply means Wuorinen was trying to write something pretty, and it was pretty.

THEOLOGOUMENON was commissioned by Ronald A. Wilford in honor of James Levine on the occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday.

THEOLOGOUMENON takes its inspiration from a text, excerpted below; it was suggested by Ronald A. Wilford, from the works of Maximus Tyrius, a Second or Third Century neo-Platonist:

God himself, the father and fashioner of all that is, older than the sun or the sky, greater than time and eternity and all the flow of being, is unnamable by any lawgiver, unutterable by any voice, not to be seen by any eye.

But we, being unable to apprehend his essence, use the help of sounds and names and pictures … yearning for the knowledge of him, and in our weakness naming all that is beautiful in this world after his nature…

Why should I further examine and pass judgment about images? Let men know what is divine. Let them know: that is all …

I have no anger for their divergences; only let them know, let them love, let them remember.

Did I say something disconcerting? For a while a friend of mine and I referred to Carter's Syringa as "syringe." No disrespect was intended.

Karl, are you going to hear the Eighth Symphony in Boston? It's a companion piece to Theologoumenon (Wuorinen says they may be played together as a single work), and I guess you'll get an idea about the one from the other.

Did I say something disconcerting? For a while a friend of mine and I referred to Carter's Syringa as "syringe." No disrespect was intended.

Not seriously disconcerting, no :-)

Karl, are you going to hear the Eighth Symphony in Boston? It's a companion piece to Theologoumenon (Wuorinen says they may be played together as a single work), and I guess you'll get an idea about the one from the other.

Joe Barron wrote:Karl, are you going to hear the Eighth Symphony in Boston? It's a companion piece to Theologoumenon (Wuorinen says they may be played together as a single work), and I guess you'll get an idea about the one from the other.